Organized under General Orders No. 123, September 3,
1S62, which designated the forces in the Department of the South as the Tenth Army Corps,
and assigned Major-General O. M. Mitchel to its command. These troops were stationed
principally at Hilton Head, S.C., and Beaufort, S.C., the order including also the troops
at Fort Pulaski, Ga., Key West, Fla., Fernandina, Fla., and St. Augustine, Fla.; in all,
14,602, present and absent, with 10,190 <fx_85>present for duty. There were 14
regiments of infantry, 1 of engineers, a battalion of cavalry, and the usual compliment of
light batteries.

General Mitchel died, October 30, 1862, and was succeeded
by General J. M. Brannan. In January, 1863, General David Hunter relieved Brannan, and
assumed command of the department; Hunter was relieved on June 3, 1863, and General Quincy
A. Gillmore was assigned to the command of the corps. The total, present for duty, in
June, 1863, was 16,329, including artillery and cavalry. The troops at Hilton Head were
commanded by General Alfred H. Terry; those on Folly Island, by General Israel Vogdes;
those at Beaufort, by General Rufus Saxton; at Seabrook Island, by General T. J.
Stevenson; at St. Helena Island, by Colonel H. R. Guss.

These forces were all under General Gillmore, and
participated in the various operations about Charleston Harbor in the summer of 1863, the
principal event being the bloody assault on Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863. This assault was
made by a column of three brigades,--Strong's, Putnam's, and Stevenson's, the whole under
command of General Truman H. Seymour. General Strong's brigade led the assault, with the
54th Massachusetts (Colored) at the head of his column. The attack was a failure,
resulting in a loss of 246 killed, 880 wounded, and 389 missing; total, 1,515. The most of
the missing were killed or wounded, but few of them ever returning. To this loss should be
added 339 casualties, which occurred in an attack on Fort Wagner, July 11th, a week
before, an attempt made by three regiments only. Two of the three brigade commanders,
General Strong and Colonel Putnam, were killed in the assault of the 18th, Putnam falling
after he had effected an entrance into the fort. Stevenson's Brigade was held mainly in
reserve.

In February, 1864, Seymour's Division, of about 7,000
men, sailed for Florida, where it was engaged on the 20th in the battle of Olustee, a
defeat in which some of the regiments suffered terribly. In April, 1864, the Tenth Corps
was ordered to Virginia, where it was placed in General Butler's Army of the James, which
was composed of the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps. The Tenth assembled at Yorktown, Va.,
where it was organized into the three divisions of Terry, Turner, and Ames, numbering, as
present for duty, 16,812 infantry, and 1,114 artillerymen, with 46 guns.

The Army of the James landed at Bermuda Hundred, May 6,
1864, and a month of active service and hard fighting immediately commenced, the Tenth
Corps losing in its operations around Drewry's Bluff, 374 killed, 2,475 wounded, and 807
missing; total, 3,656. Butler's operations resulting in nothing but failures, General
Grant ordered the greater part of his forces to the support of the Army of the Potomac.
Accordingly, on the 29th of May, General W. F. Smith, commanding the Eighteenth Corps,
took the First (Brooks') and Second (Martin-dale's) Divisions of his own corps, and the
Second (Devens') and Third (Ames') Divisions of the Tenth Corps, and proceeded to Cold
Harbor, where these divisions cooperated with the Army of the Potomac in the terrible
fighting which commenced immediately upon their arrival. While at Cold Harbor, these two
divisions of the Tenth Corps were known as part of the Eighteenth Corps, forming the Third
Division, under command of General Devens. Upon the close of the fighting at Cold Harbor,
the two divisions returned by water transports to Bermuda Hundred, but consolidated as the
Second Division, Tenth A. C.

On the 14th of August, the Tenth Corps, under command of
General David B. Birney, crossed the James and became engaged with the enemy at Deep
Bottom, General Terry's division taking a prominent part in this action. The casualties in
the corps were: 213 killed, 1,154 wounded, 311 missing; total, 1,678. On September 29th,
Birney crossed again with his corps, and fought at Chaffin's Farm, his command consisting
of Terry's and Ames' divisions, together with a brigade of colored troops, under General
William Birney. Loss: 74 killed, 587 wounded, 302 missing; total, 963. In the unsuccessful
attack on Fort Gilmer, and at New Market Heights, these colored troops displayed great
gallantry. General David B. Birney died at Philadelphia, October 18, 1864, and was
succeeded by General Terry, who was in command of the corps during the fighting on the
Darbytown Road, and at the battle of Fair Oaks, October 27, 1864.

On December 3, 1864, the corps was discontinued, and its
regiments were assigned to the newly formed Twenty-fourth Corps, which was composed of the
white troops from the Tenth and Eighteenth Corps. But immediately after this transfer,
Ames' Division, together with Abbott's Brigade of this new corps, were detached and
ordered on the Fort Fisher expedition. After the brilliant capture of Fort Fisher by these
troops, they remained in North Carolina, and, in March, 1865, the Tenth Corps was revived.
As reorganized, it consisted of Birge's (1st) Division, composed of three brigades taken
from Grover's Division of the Nineteenth Corps, then stationed at Savannah; of Ames' (2nd)
Division, composed of the troops which fought at Fort Fisher; of Paine's (3d) Division,
colored troops; and of Abbott's Separate Brigade, numbering in all 12,099 men. General
Terry, who was in command at the victory of Fort Fisher, was placed at the head of the
corps. But the war was then near its close, and in August, 1865, the organization was
discontinued.

Source: "Regimental Losses in the American Civil War
(1861-1865)" - William F. Fox